Policybazaar Gets ‘Unicorn’ Status As It Secures $200 Million From SoftBank Vision Fund

Policybazzar, the online insurance platform, has raised $200 million in a funding round that was led by SoftBank Vision Fund. With this new funding, the company has earned the ‘unicorn’ status, having valuation of over $1 billion.

All the existing investors of the company, excluding Premji Invest, have participated in this Series F funding round. The company is aiming to grow at an average rate of 80 percent over the next three years. Banking on the growth of digital insurance, the company is hoping to reach 10 million transacting customers by 2020.

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Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and CEO of Policybazaar said in a statement,

SoftBank’s culture of backing disruptive businesses and industry leaders with long-term capital investment gels well with our own values and vision of creating a transparent and empowering financial products marketplace. We hope to gain a lot from their global footprint and experience.

Munish Varma, partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers,

We believe that the Indian insurance market continues to remain massively under-developed and Policybazaar, supported by SoftBank’s capital and ecosystem, is uniquely positioned to dramatically increase the adoption of insurance products in the country.

In this online insurance space, Policybazaar competes against several startups, including Acko General Insurance, which recently raised $12 million in a funding round led by Amazon.

Paytm, one of the leading payments platform, is also setting up two insurance units Paytm Life Insurance and Paytm General Insurance Corporation, while MobiKwik is also planning to foray into online financial services starting with insurance.

She started at Venture Dreams as an intern and later graduated as a writer. She is a start-up enthusiast and likes to cover stories on startup fundings and acquisitions. Feel free to contact her at [email protected]